Messages - noonancm

I use a whole tablet of campden for five gallons, primarily because I am too lazy to cut a tablet. I had raised the question whether this was too much and seemingly on this forum, it was the consensus that it did not really matter. Anyway I have never received any complaints about my darker beers. Perhaps I was addressing a problem without realizing it.

The reference to the underground blog listed many of the ones I was going to suggest. Since the Fair is at the convention center you would be right across the street from Barley's and down the street from the Elevator. Been to Seven Sons several times; it is good.Also nearby in the Italian Village on 5th street is the Drake Brothers' Meadery, another excellent place. Columbus and nearby communities has exploded with breweries.

Another option is to brew another beer like a pale ale or something of similar strength and use the yeast cake for the barleywine. It would be similar to a starter and the yeast would be hungry for something stronger.

I, too, have used heatsticks (information on their construction) and occasionally to directly heat up a mash. Once in a while, a grain will stick to the heatstick but as for scorching the mash, nothing.

Using the heatsticks to heat up wort, I found on the first set that the wort will build up on the elements, eventually leaving a burnt taste in some worts. By this point the sticks broke down and needed to be replaced. Since then, I clean the sticks to prevent buildup. Thus even here, no scorching tastes in the beer.

Going back to the original question, other than the occasional sticking of the grain, there should be no scorching as long as their is liquid in the mash

I've used them strictly as bittering; primarily because I brew a rotation of styles that often call for different hops for flavor and aroma. For example, Irish Red, Belgian Strong, Blonde, Porter, etc.

I have been using millennium hops for a couple of years as my bittering hops for several different beer styles. Yet I have never seen any real discussions about the hops pro or con. I am curious about others' reaction to the hops. I have generally found it a versatile hops that has aloud me to stretch dollars used for the purchase of hops. What has others found?

Normally I crush the tablet in the pot prior to adding the water (about 7 gallons) to be heated. As for sparge water (another 1 to 3 gallons) I have been adding another tablet in recent years. I knew that one tablet should be able to handle 20 gallons.

As for adding sodium and potassium to the water, I don't know much regarding chemistry and trying to make sense of water chemistry makes my head spin. I do know that my Columbus, OH water is very soft and been told to add gypsum to make my hoppy beers "pop."

I have always read that one should use a partial tablet of campden tablet per five gallons of wort in order to remove chlorine and chloramine. Is there any harm in using a whole tablet for mashing a 5 gallon batch. The tablets are relatively cheap and cutting them such a pain